[Sca-cooks] taro, ginger beer etc.

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Stefan wrote:
> Where and when was taro used in medieval times? I have only a small file on 
> taro in the Florilegium,
> taro-msg (4K) 2/10/14 Use of the taro plant in period.

Taro, colocasia esculenta, qulqas in Arabic, appears in nearly every medieval Arabic-language cookbook i have seen, including some not yet translated into English, from ibn Sayyar al-Qarraq's 10th c. collection of 9th and 10th c. recipes from Baghdad to 13th c. cookbooks from al-Andalus, to cookbooks from Mamluk Egypt (1270-1600).

Here's a recipe i recently translated from the circa 1226 Andalusi cookbook "Fadalat al-Khiwan fi Tayibat at-Ta'am wa al alwan" (Delicacies of the table and the best sorts of dishes) by Abu Ali ibn al-Hassan ibn Razin al-Tujibi.

You have some of his recipes in the Florilegium under the Spanish spelling "Tugibi", in which "fat" is translated as *lard*, something no Muslim would ever touch.

My translation is still in rough form. Once i get the whole book translated, i'll be smoothing out all the translations.

This recipe has no title. It's the only one in the 10th Chapter: Concerning Colocasia (taro root)

Wash sweet and tender colocasia to remove the dust. Remove the peel and cut into thin pieces. Boil for a short time with water and salt on the fire. Then wipe them dry and fry in oil or fat until they are golden-brown. Then sprinkle them with a little lime vinegar in a dish.

Chapter 10, Section 7, on the making of vinegars

1. Lime Vinegar
Wash ripe green limes of good quality, cut them in two and express the juice. Strain through a fine cloth and put them in crystal containers. Add the usual quantity of salt and place them in a location in which they are given sun. Then strain once or twice and cover them with oil.


Urtatim al-qurtubiyya